‘Empire’ Recap: Thirsty Holds Anika’s Fate In His Hands

Anika faces serious consequences if convicted of that murder she didn't commit.

On last week’s episode of Empire we wondered where Mama Lucious (Leah) was. We get that answer tonight! Tonight’s episode starts peacefully, with Lucious enjoying a bath until Mama Lucious comes through and tries to drown him. He has flashbacks of her trying to drown him as a child as this happens, but he’s still mentally not all there so this is quite scary. Luckily, Claudia comes through and stops the madness. Mama Lucious says all she was trying to do was rid the world of the demon she birthed.

Meanwhile, Anika has been in jail for five months for murdering Tariq, which she didn’t do (Leah set her up). We’re at her bail hearing and it’s not good. Her bail gets denied because you know how hard the authorities are on people who are accused of killing a federal agent (just look at what happened with Ghost). Anika is stuck in jail for another 6 months until trial, unless a magician named Thirsty can work some magic.

Later on, Cookie shows up to visit Anika with Thirsty in tow. Anika maintains her innocence, but Cookie is side eying her, annoyed because they paid Anika to disappear, which she was going to do before Leah messed things up. For all Cookie knows, Anika may have done it, but Thirsty steps in and says he can get her in front of a US attorney asap, but Anika has to “play nice,” whatever that means.

Claudia takes Lucious to Clem’s Joint, a diner he used to frequent back in the day. Clem, who doesn’t know what’s up with Lucious, greets him and then name drops someone named Eddie (played by Forest Whitaker). Claudia shuts it down because it’s too much information, but Lucious pretends to go to the bathroom, finds Clem and asks how to get in touch with Eddie. Lucious gets what he needs and heads out to find Eddie, who is getting married that day, and leaves a panicked Claudia behind.

Claudia tells Cookie what happened, but Cookie calms down one she hears that he went to find Eddie because Eddie is family (though we don’t know what the relation is).

Lucious chats with Eddie at his wedding and Eddie, who hasn’t seen Lucious in a while, starts telling a story about how Lucious once beat the crap out of someone, back in the day, and drove around with the man in the trunk of his car just to torture him. Eddie thinks this is the funniest thing ever, which clues us into the act that not he’s probably not wrapped too tight. But the story also triggers Lucious into another one of his amnesiac episodes where he starts convulsing and flailing around.

Back to Anika. Thirsty gets her in front of the US attorney, like he said he would, and does what he does. He gets Anika off. His angle is that Anika feared for her life because Tariq stalked her (which he technically did), and Thirsty has receipts! He has photos from when Tariq was surveilling her (they were surveilling Tariq surveilling the Lyons), and he has a recording of Anika saying, “Tariq don’t hurt me” (it’s being presented out of context, but effective). Anika turns on the waterworks and says that Tariq raped her so she did it in self defense. Basically, any prosecutor in his right mind would not want any parts of this case and any jury in their right minds would acquit. Thirsty wins again.

Later on, we find out that Eddie is a singer. We still don’t know what the familial relation is, but we see him sitting at a piano singing as Cookie and Lucious watch. Eventually it becomes clear to Eddie, based on Lucious’ treatment of him, that something isn’t right. Cookie tells Eddie what’s up and urges him not to tell anyone because only the immediate family knows.

Not long after that, Cookie encounters Mama Lyon in her room and promptly tells her where to go. This eventually leads to Mama Lyon revealing that she set Anika up and then threatens that she wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if necessary (Mama Lyon was basically trying to show that she’s not to be played with). Cookie is so stunned by this that she literally just stares as her special mother-in-law sashays away.

Finally, Cookie, Lucious, and Claudia enlist the staff of a special care facility to come get Mama Lyon. Leah does not go in peace, though. She starts yelling at Lucious, talmbout how she knew he was evil since he was born and that she was just trying to vanquish the Satan’s spawn she birth. Lucious is literally shook and as a result, he signs an involuntary commitment contract to get mama up out of there. Then Mama Lyon tries to choke Claudia on her way out, cementing the fact that they did the right thing by committing her.

Later on, Cookie announces that Empire will be releasing 20 new albums, over the course of the year, for every year Empire has been in business. She doesn’t inform Andre of this crazy decision (it’s crazy because Empire isn’t bringing money in according to Dre), and he’s pissed. He confronts his mother about it, but gets shut down.

Cookie goes off on him for being insubordinate, pulls out her trusty bat, and tells him where to go too.

In the episode’s ending montage, Warren (Evil Claire Huxtable’s son/spy) and Jamal are getting along well. They’re singing a song of Jamal’s that got rejected at Empire. Then we see Anika showing up to Hakeem’s place. She’s happy to see him, but taken aback by Tiana holding Bella.

Finally, Claudia tells Dwight that she’s leaving and has arranged for another nurse. He gets upset and wants to know why she’s leaving. She says it’s because he doesn’t trust her. He apologizes for the stunt he pulled earlier, says she’s the only one he actually trusts, and then goes into this story about how when he woke up in the hospital and saw her face, he felt safe and if she leaves he won’t be safe again. He doesn’t want to be “stuck in a world of demons who will turn him into a monster.” He begs her to stay and she obliges.

Claudia will be back next week to piss Cookie off even more! Here for it.